A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There's a pattern in many of President Trump's interactions with other world leaders. You might call it the art of the praise. Here's NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: When U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White House in late February, he carried a letter in his jacket pocket.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: It is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King a letter.
KEITH: In it, an invitation for a state visit.
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STARMER: I think the last state visit was a tremendous success.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It was.
STARMER: His Majesty the King wants to make this even better than that. So this is truly historic, an unprecedented second...
TRUMP: That's a great...
STARMER: ...State visit.
KEITH: In July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought a letter of his own.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: The letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.
TRUMP: Oh.
NETANYAHU: It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved. And you should get it.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. This I didn't know. Wow.
KEITH: In Trump's first term, many leaders were standoffish and skeptical. Now, more often than not, they are obsequious. Career diplomat Kurt Volker served in the first Trump administration. This is how he describes the thinking of European leaders, especially.
KURT VOLKER: He's back and he's powerful, and he can do things that we like or don't like. So we better make sure that he does what we like.
KEITH: And Trump isn't just getting more praise, he's getting results, says Volker. In a statement to NPR, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, quote, "foreign leaders are eager for a positive relationship with President Trump and to participate in the booming Trump economy." Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made sure to compliment President Trump before hashing out the final details of a trade agreement.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: You're known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker. What is in front...
TRUMP: But fair.
VON DER LEYEN: And fair.
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VON DER LEYEN: And what is in front of us...
TRUMP: That's less important.
VON DER LEYEN: ...If we are successful, I think it would be the biggest deal each of us has ever struck.
KEITH: They got a deal. Ivo Daalder is a former U.S. diplomat, now a senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard.
IVO DAALDER: Most world leaders have taken the measure of the man. And so flattery and saying he is the best, that he is the only person who could have achieved this outcome at this summit, is meant first and foremost to keep him on side.
KEITH: And in the case of NATO, it helped. Trump has long been skeptical of the mutual defense alliance. Before their most recent summit, NATO chief Mark Rutte sent a text to Trump saying he would achieve something no American president in decades could get done - getting NATO countries to agree to spend 5% of their GDP on defense. And he repeated it when they were face-to-face.
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MARK RUTTE: It's absolutely true. I want to state here, without President Trump, this would not have happened.
KEITH: This was the same sit-down where Rutte appeared to refer to Trump as Daddy, which the president ran with.
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TRUMP: I think he likes me. If he doesn't, I'll let you know. I'll come back and I'll hit him hard, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: But do you find...
TRUMP: He did it very affectionate. He - Daddy. You're my daddy.
JUSTIN LOGAN: I think some of these remarks show that shamelessness truly is a superpower in international politics and in other realms.
KEITH: Justin Logan is the director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He says, for President Trump, leadership is personal.
LOGAN: Nothing is forever. You can go from the nice list to the naughty list and back with some alacrity. And so that's the really unnerving thing. So I think the lesson here will be continue larding on the praise, even at times where it doesn't feel so great.
KEITH: And even if there are political consequences at home in countries where Trump is unpopular. Other leaders have been more stern in their dealings, with mixed results.
Tamara Keith, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF FATBOY SLIM SONG, "PRAISE YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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